Getting Started with openSUSE 11.0

To get started with openSUSE, you can download one of the ISO images for the final release. We make several images available, including x86, x86_64, and PowerPC images. We offer installable DVDs with a wide selection of software, as well as GNOME and KDE4 live CDs with a smaller selection of software chosen to get desktop users up and running quickly.

New and Notable Features

A lot has changed since openSUSE 10.3, and a lot of work has gone into improving openSUSE. In this release you’ll find updated versions of almost every program, a vastly improved installer, faster and easier package management, and much more. Here’s some of the improvements you’ll see in openSUSE 11.0:

Installation and Package Management

openSUSE has enjoyed an easy to use installer for quite some time, but the openSUSE team felt that the number of steps required to install openSUSE could use some work. In this release, the number of steps required to install openSUSE have been reduced dramatically.

Users have two options for installation — the live CDs, which feature a simplified installer that doesn’t require the user to make any decisions about package selection, and the openSUSE DVDs, which allow users to choose their desktop (including KDE 3.5 and Xfce, or no desktop at all) and other packages not included on the live CDs.

Package Management Improvements

PackageKit

Part of providing a quality operating system is providing updates throughout the life of the system. We want to make it easy for users to apply critical fixes to their system, and have provided PackageKit to make updating an openSUSE system a breeze.

PackageKit is a utility that makes updating software much easier. GNOME and KDE users will see an icon in the system tray that provides visual cues about system updates. When updates for openSUSE are available, the icon will change to reflect the presence of updates — and whether the updates are just bug fixes or if there are critical updates or security fixes that need to be installed right away.

KDE and KDE4

openSUSE 11.0 includes two branches of KDE — the KDE 3.5.x series, which is the stable and older KDE series that many openSUSE users are already familiar with, and the cutting edge KDE4.

KDE4 is not quite a drop-in replacement for KDE 3.5, and some features still have rough edges. Because the openSUSE team wants to ensure the best possible support for its users, we’ve given users the option of installing KDE4 or KDE 3.5 (or both) for 11.0. (At this time, there is no live CD for KDE 3.5, but users can still install it from the DVD.)

However, the openSUSE team has done its best to ensure that the KDE 4 experience is top-notch in openSUSE 11.0. The 11.0 release includes KDE 4.0.4 with some features included from the KDE 4.1 release that will be available in July.

Getting to Know KDE 4

KDE 4 is the KDE Project’s vision for a next-generation desktop. It includes many rewrites of the KDE platform, with new technologies that will lay the foundation of a flexible and multi-platform development framework.

Improved Look and Feel

The first thing KDE users will notice in KDE 4 is Oxygen, a new approach to artwork on KDE that brings a unified and attractive look to all KDE 4 interfaces, applications, icons, and themes.

After taking in the artwork, users will be able to take advantage of Plasma, the new desktop shell. Plasma provides the full desktop interface experience, from the KDE panel and menu, to desktop widgets (called Plasmoids) that offer a completely new level of functionality for KDE.

The KDE window manager, KWin, has gotten a major upgrade for KDE 4, and now includes native composting features, so

GNOME 2.22

GNOME users will find a lot to like in openSUSE 11.0. openSUSE’s GNOME is very close to upstream GNOME, because Novell and openSUSE want to do as much work as possible in the upstream release. However, we do modify GNOME’s artwork to provide a unified look and feel for the distro. The default GNOME configuration, such as panel layout, is slightly different than “stock” GNOME, and the openSUSE GNOME team backports a number of bug fixes into our GNOME release to ensure stability and the best possible GNOME experience.

Updated in 2.22

Say Cheese – a fun Webcam app for taking pictures and making videos with your computer’s Web cam. You can modify pictures with stock effects in Say Cheese, or use F-Spot or The GIMP to edit.

PulseAudio

Firefox 3.0

Firefox is one of the most popular open source applications on the planet, and the openSUSE desktop just wouldn’t be complete without Mozilla Firefox.

Note openSUSE 11.0 ships with Firefox 3.0 beta 5, and updates to the final 3.0 release upon applying the current updates. The openSUSE team decided, because Firefox 3.0 would ship so closely to the final openSUSE 11.0 release date, it was better to package and test the 3.0 series than the older Firefox releases.

The 3.0 release has a number of new features and improvements that will make browsing the Web on openSUSE convenient and safe:

Security Features

Firefox includes better site identification features. In the location bar, click on the site’s icon and you’ll see information on the site’s ownership and if you’re using a secure connection, Firefox can verify the site’s identity.

Firefox identifies attack sites that are known to distribute viruses, trojans, or other malware.

Phishing sites are stopped cold by Firefox. If Firefox detects that a site is impersonating a legitimate site (like eBay), it will display a warning to ensure users aren’t fooled by phishing sites.

Better Browsing Experience

Firefox has simplified add-on installation, to make it easier to install popular extensions.

If an extension is known to have a security vulnerability, Firefox will disable the extension until an update has been made available and installed.

Save tabs on exit: If you don’t want to lose your browsing setup, Firefox will let you save your tab groups for next time.

OpenOffice.org 2.4

OpenOffice.org 2.4 provides openSUSE users with a top-notch office suite with a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation tool (Impress), and drawing software (Draw). Whether you need to write a report for school, create a budget spreadsheet, or whip up a presentation to convince the boss to boost the marketing budget, OpenOffice.org will do the job.

The OpenOffice.org 2.4 release brings a number of new features to the suite, such as improved chart features, rectangular text selection in Writer, drag and drop rows and columns in Calc, and much more.

openSUSE ships the [Go-OO http://go-oo.org/] version of OpenOffice.org, which means users get a lot of additional features not found in the upstream version of OpenOffice.org.

Gstreamer Integration: Want to add more zip to your presentations? OpenOffice.org includes Gstreamer support, so you can embed music and videos into your presentations and other documents.

Compiz Fusion

The Linux desktop isn’t just functional, with openSUSE 11.0 it’s beautiful, thanks in part to Compiz Fusion.

It’s now easy to enable and configure Compiz in KDE and GNOME, using Simple CCSM, which is labeled Desktop Effects in the main menu. Using the Simple CCSM dialog you can enable/disable Compiz, and change some of the more prominent Compiz features without getting deep into all of the functionality of Compiz. From here you can choose effects profiles which vary from lightweight profiles with a few effects to more comprehensive sets of effects which may have a more marked effect on performance.

More advanced users may want to delve deep into Compiz functionality with the CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm), which is also part of openSUSE 11.0’s default package set.